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Albrecht Stein
Jungmann Albrecht Stein is a German teenager at one of the, National Political Institutes of Education, commonly abbreviated Napola, they were secondary boarding schools in Nazi Germany. Albrecht's talents lie in writing and the arts, areas his father, Gauleiter Heinrich Stein, sees as unfit for men. His mother is more supportive but is ultimately just as disinterested. Albrecht begins writing for the school newspaper, taking advice and criticism from Friedrich Weimer. Albrecht invites Friedrich to come with him to the Stein family's home, a vast mansion in the countryside. Heinrich Stein returns home for his birthday, treated to a special dinner by his wife and a group of friends from the Nazi Party, German Army, and Waffen-SS. He wastes no time criticizing Albrecht for his polite, artistic manner and lack of athletic talent. A boxer himself, Heinrich Stein is far more interested in Friedrich than in his own son, and delights in Albrecht's inability to even compete with Friedrich when the two are taken downstairs and forced to fight a boxing match. During the winter, a group of military vehicles arrives at the school at night. The entire seventh-year class is called outside, where Gauleiter Heinrich Stein informs them that a group of Soviet POW's have overpowered their guards, stolen weapons, and escaped from the nearby village. The boys are armed with Karabiner 98k rifles and sent into the woods to search for them. Friedrich and Albrecht, assigned to the same group, end up deep in the frozen woods. Abruptly, a group of figures come out of hiding and try to run back over the crest of a nearby hill, ignoring the boys' shouts to halt. The boys open fire, shooting each of the Russians. Moving closer, they are shocked to find that not only were none of the prisoners armed, but they were all young boys, no older than the German students. A horrified Albrecht vainly tries to bandage the wounds of one prisoner still left alive, but his father arrives with a search party and shoots the Russian. As the boys are taken back to Allenstein, they see the rest of the POW's being rounded up and hear a long, rattling fusillade of gunfire in the woods. In class the next day, Albrecht reads aloud an essay in which he condemns the execution of the Soviet POW's as a criminal act and his own participation in it as "evil". Outraged, school authorities summon his father, who coldly informs Albrecht that he will write a new essay, starting with an apology for his previous statements. Albrecht instead writes a second essay in which he condemns his father for ordering the POW's executed. Learning that Albrecht is to be expelled from school and drafted into the Waffen-SS to fight on the Eastern Front, Friedrich asks what he will do next. Albrecht answers, "I don't know." The next morning, the sports instructor wakes the boys up early and orders them out onto the frozen lake near the school. Two holes have been made in the ice, and each boy must dive in one and swim to the other, using a rope that the first pulls through as a guide. Friedrich makes the swim through the freezing water, but Albrecht dives in and doesn't come out. Friedrich finds him halfway between the holes, having deliberately halted under the ice. Hearing Friedrich's shouts, Albrecht looks up and gives a slight shake of his head. Touching a hand to the underside of the ice, Albrecht lets go of the rope, sinking deep into the freezing water and vanishing from sight. Deeply grieved, Friedrich writes an obituary for his friend and asks the headmaster to publish it in the school newspaper, but the headmaster refuses, stating that "Amidst people who have died for Fuehrer, Fatherland, and Nation, there is no place for suicides." Gallery Weimer and Stein..jpg|Weimer and Stein. Weimer and Stein. 2.jpg Stein, Albrecht Stein, Albrecht Stein, Albrecht Stein, Albrecht Stein, Albrecht Stein, Albrecht Stein, Albrecht Stein, Albrecht Stein, Albrecht